WASHINGTON-On the basis of high-profile, sweeping bills, wireless telecom lobbyists had a miserable time of it in the 105th Congress.
But given that lobbyists operated in the Age of Scandal, the results do not look so bad.
Success this time around can be measured both in nuance-congressional signals-and in concrete terms of those bills Congress approved, legislation that nearly passed and initiatives the industry stopped cold that could have hurt carriers.
As such, in the context of the times, the 1998 lobbying campaign was as successful as could be expected.
Congress passed laws cracking down on unauthorized wireless cloning and identity theft-big victories for wireless and even bigger wins for consumers.
Conference report language was included in the $500 billion omnibus spending bill passed by Congress last week to push out digital wiretap compliance and carrier reimbursement dates to June 30, 1999. The wireless industry would have preferred statutory language on the dates, but considering the FBI came away largely empty-handed from the digital wiretap debate this year-despite getting expanded authority for roving wiretaps-it was a very good year for wireless.
Except for one thing: The GOP-led Congress still has appropriated only $110 million of the $500 authorized for the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act in 1994.
The wireless industry got lawmakers thinking about taxes and mandates that add to monthly bills of consumers. And Congress weighed in on wireless number portability. Lawmakers, in turn, got the Federal Communications Commission to think twice about where it was headed on number portability. It did, and the June 30, 1999, deadline for implementing number portability requirements was extended to March 31, 2000.
An enhanced 911 federal-land antenna siting bill would have been icing on the cake.
Perhaps as important as what happened is what didn’t happen.
Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-Vt.) bill to curb antenna siting, introduced and reintroduced, never saw the light of day.
A closer call was a bankruptcy bill, which died in the waning days of Congress. The measure included a provision to expand the definition of “basic utilities” such that carriers would be able to cut off non-paying customers in bankruptcy. The cellular industry teamed with other telecom sectors to snuff out the provision.
“Telecom fit around the edges of the 105th Congress. This Congress did not focus on telecom. This Congress focused on scandal and reform,” Thomas Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, understatedly observed.
This was not a year like 1993, when wireless lobbyists got Congress to significantly diminish state regulation of commercial wireless carriers, or in 1996, when the industry scored a few more deregulatory points.
Wireless telecom lobbying in the Age of Scandal was no easy thing.
Indeed, several of the biggest telecom items in official Washington this year were scandals: U.S. satellite technology transfers to China and Russia, $1 million Portals lease payments to Clinton-Gore allies and alleged influence peddling by Labor Secretary Alexis Herman on behalf of Mobile Communications Holdings Inc., a mobile satellite startup.
That kept congressional and Justice Department investigators plenty busy.
For sure, the industry had a hard time getting the attention of Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) once the House Commerce Committee passed the E911 bill in August. Why? McCain, a possible GOP presidential candidate in 2000, was fighting quixotic battles to reform campaign finance laws and Big Tobacco.
Once E911 finally got on McCain’s radar screen in late September, lobbyists from the National League of Cities and the National Association of Counties had gotten to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).
“I kind of scratch my head and am at a loss on how the cities and counties go back to their constituents and say they walked away from hundreds of millions of dollars in safety benefits,” said Wheeler.
Perhaps more significant was trial lawyer support of Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.)., who is in a tight re-election race.
Hollings, ranking minority member of the Senate Commerce Committee, had liability concerns with E911 legislation. That was that. The plug was pulled on E911.
“The E911 bill came awfully far, awfully fast,” said Wheeler.
In 1999, there are great expectations that E911 will go the distance.
RCR reporter Heather Forsgren Weaver contributed to this report.
